7/12/11

{natural disasters}: our trip to the lake

Last Saturday we took a trip up to Yankee Meadows. Oddly enough, a good portion of folks I've talked to that grew up here don't even know where this is. (It's off the Parowan exit up the canyon on the way to Brianhead if you're wondering). Anyway-we thought it would be fun to go up and get out of the heat for a day. Unfortunately, the weather has been really stormy and after coming out of the movie late Friday night to a raging thunderstorm (Transformers was awesome, btw) we debated going Saturday. Saturday morning I woke up exhausted (we stayed up WAY too late Friday night), but decided a nice relaxing trip to the lake might be a good thing, even if we get some rain.
**Side note: Paisley has been throwing some EPIC tantrums lately. I am now realizing it has more to do with her teeth killing her than her disposition, but regardless Friday I made the mistake of going to Target with her toward the beginning of her nap time and she screamed the ENTIRE hour I was there-with a full blown wrestling match at the cash register. Wrestling a wiggly, screaming 25 lb weight has really begun to develop my arm muscles and I think I could actually hurt someone if I punched them!! Oh, and I tell this side note because I actually woke up sore from the wrestling-both emotionally and physically.

Back to the story. Saturday morning we threw everything together and left with Chad and Sarah to drive up to Cedar. Paisley chose not to sleep, even though we left at nap time and she usually sleeps in the car. We stopped at the Cedar City Wal-mart to top off our supplies and Paisley decided to again throw an epic tantrum. It was bad. I took her out to wait for everyone else to check out and again had to spend a good 10 minutes wrestling with her, screaming at the top of her lungs. (I didn't think to just get the car keys) It was quite a scene. After that we stopped at Pastry Pub (LOVE!!!) and were on our way up the canyon. At this point, Paisley finally passed out from what could only be exhaustion. I was so grateful because she really is such a good kid as long as she gets her naps. 5 minutes later, she woke up. argh.
We made it up the canyon, to Yankee and parked, realizing that we needed to prioritize what we needed from the car to hike around to the other side of the lake. Luckily I took an extra diaper and hoodies and dressed Paisley in warmer clothes (it was around 60 F, so not TOO terribly cold. We grabbed the fishing stuff and hiked around to the other side. Just as we had set up our benches, finished our lunches and started fishing, Paisley went ahead and fell in the lake. She was fine-but she drenched all of her clothes!! So we dried her off and I wrapped her up in her blanket and she looked like she was going to go to sleep!! nope. Then it started to downpour. Luckily I had our thick denim blanket so we huddled under there until it stopped, Paisley screaming and thrashing a good portion of the time. Then the rain stopped and Paisley wanted to run around. Not wanting her to soak the one clean diaper I had put on her (if she happened to fall back in), I took it off and just let her run free. (this is when the above pic was taken). Luckily too when the rain would stop, the sun would come out and it would warm up quite rapidly. We fished and sat for a bit, and then Paisley fell in the lake again. She actually fell in the moment after I took the picture.
*Second Side note: This last week Jon finally acquired the phone of his dreams. He loves it. It is brand new and shiny. It is expensive-and while it is insured, it will still be expensive to replace.
Jon jumped in to save our child from drowning, once again. And took his phone into the lake with him. You can imagine that his mood was not so great for the rest of the day. In my defense-I was taking a picture...and I had the camera around my neck (which is worth more than the phone) and I rescued her the first time. We actually are thinking maybe we should have just left her to flounder a bit longer because she did not learn her lesson...

Rinsed off and clean from her second dip in the lake, we diapered her up, wrapped her in my hoodie and began our trek back to the car to start dinner. The rest of the day kind of went on like the beginning:

The wood was super wet and it took a long time to get a sufficient fire started.

Paisley would not take her second nap-we put her in the car, we laid her out on the blanket, we tried and tried and tried to no avail. Extreme fussing and general grumpiness resulted.

The boys left us to go exploring further up the canyon (they took the car) and I had nightmares of them not coming back...just the thoughts were terrifying.

I burned the tin-foil dinners because I really thought I knew what I was doing...ug.

It down poured again before the boys had come back and everything got soaked...including us.

My cobbler was described as baked frosting with syrup on top.

*Third Side note: Cobblers are meant to be made with canned fruit, not fruit pie filling. So if you use pie filling, it can cause your cobbler to be WAY too sweet. Also, cobblers are meant to be made with a plain cake mix like yellow or white. Not with a vanilla cake mix, which also results in WAY too sweet. If you use both pie filling and 2 boxes of vanilla cake mix your cobbler will probably be described as "baked frosting with syrup on top."

After dinner Jon and Chad hiked a bit up the lake to fish some before we left and Sarah and I cleaned up what we could. We decided to wander over and get the boys after and at this point my arms were so tired from holding Paisley I made her walk. This was the end. She screamed the entire time around the lake...but kept following me because I was walking away from her. And yes, I am a terrible mother-I know, believe me, I know. Fortunately by the time we reached Jon she was so worn out that I picked her up and she instantly fell asleep in my arms. Wonderful. We went back and enjoyed the sunset over the lake for a minute, the boys choking down my delicious cobbler.

oh. my. goodness. and you survived? i've always wanted to go to yankee meadow, looks beautiful there. but wow, you probably never want to go back. i think you are a great mom, maybe even too nice. haha, if jaxon were to act like that, he'd be screaming himself to sleep in his car seat.